Every copywriter knows the value of a P.S. It’s the second most important part of a sales letter or email. Right behind the headline or subject line.
Recently on the WarriorForum, there was an interesting discussion on whether the P.S.’s hand can be overplayed in email autoresponders. Meaning using it too much.
My comeback?
Take any email copywriting device and consistently use it against the same list. I don’t care what it is. Benefit-based subject lines… list posts… long emails… specific subject matter… short emails… it doesn’t matter.
Whatever it is, it will fatigue. Quickly. You let people see the pattern and you’re screwed. You ALWAYS want an element of variety. Keep changing things up.
That’s great advice (if I do say so myself,) but that’s not why I’m writing today. Here’s the P.S. strategy I wanted to share:
One of the things that’s worked for me is on a specific autoresponder day, having a normal email sent out, and then right behind it having an email with the subject line “P.S. Important.” And then saying whatever it is you wanted to emphasize.
Changes things up nicely, doesn’t it? Results are really good. I treat this like a secret weapon. When I really need people to pay attention.
But like anything, use it judiciously. Overdoing it will have readers calling BS.
But can you see why it would work for you? In my real life, I’ll send additional emails one right behind the other if what I have to say is important. The subject line is terse and short. I’m not trying to overengineer it. Just “PS”. It’s important but the writing says “I’m not trying to sell you on anything except how important I get this point across”.
Opens will go up and clicks should go up with the right emphasis.
One more thing. To vary things up, I’ll also have similar subject lines such “Also”, “One more thing” and “Don’t let me forget”. I make these look like important afterthoughts.
Good luck with this.
PS: Chris Wright also points out Andre Chaperon is real successful with email marketing and is a huge advocate of using P.S. to “tease” what’s in his next email.
One of the reasons why he does it is to create “open loops.” It makes readers WANT to read his next email.
He uses them constantly so to “train” the list to read them.
